For many people, a good deal of the day is spent online. The ability to send e-mail messages and "surf" the World Wide Web has already become matter-of-fact. But an amazing amount of technology and mathematics must occur for e-mail and Internet access to be successful.

A Brief History of the Internet

The general consensus is that the conception of the Internet occurred in the early 1960s as part of the Department of Defense's Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), which was conceived and headed by J. C. R. Licklider from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The intent was to share supercomputers among researchers in the United States.

Because computers in the 1960s were so large and expensive, it was important to find a way for many people, often at different locations, to be able to use the same computer. By the end of the decade, ARPANET was developed...